Greece is moving to give the country’s largest data-center projects preferential access to its electricity grid, raising questions about competition, equal treatment of investors and whether the proposed rules could benefit a major development involving Amazon Web Services.
A provision in draft legislation from Greece’s Environment and Energy Ministry would grant absolute priority in the review of grid-connection applications for data centers requiring more than 200 megawatts of electricity.
With grid capacity increasingly scarce, such priority could provide a substantial competitive advantage, allowing large projects to move ahead of smaller developments regardless of how advanced their investment plans are.
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The measure, contained in Article 22 of legislation released for public consultation, comes as Greece seeks to establish itself as a regional hub for cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
In September, Greece’s state-controlled electricity company, Public Power Corp., or PPC, announced a data-center development with Amazon Web Services at Agios Dimitrios, near Kozani in northern Greece.
The project envisages an initial capacity of 300 megawatts, potentially expanding to one gigawatt—well above the proposed threshold. Although the development meets the size requirement, it remains unclear whether it satisfies all the additional conditions for preferential treatment.
Under the proposed rules, qualifying projects must commit to covering at least 80% of their maximum electricity demand through dispatchable generation facilities, energy-storage systems or a combination of both.
Storage installations must provide capacity equivalent to at least six hours of maximum consumption. The supporting facilities must begin operating after Jan. 1, 2027, and no later than the data center itself.
These requirements are intended to protect grid stability but could favor established energy companies with access to generation assets over independent technology investors.
The Greek approach also differs from the broader strategy being developed in Brussels.
The European Commission’s proposed Cloud and AI Development Act emphasizes criteria including energy sustainability, technological innovation and contributions to grid stability when identifying strategic digital infrastructure investments.
Greece’s proposal, by contrast, makes electricity demand above a fixed threshold the principal gateway to preferential treatment, potentially excluding smaller, more energy-efficient facilities.
The legislation could also face scrutiny under European Union electricity-market rules.
EU Directive 2019/944 establishes principles of transparency and nondiscriminatory access to electricity networks, raising questions about whether prioritizing projects above 200 megawatts can be justified on objective technical grounds.
